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“Nothing. I’ve been checking obsessively since I woke up at four this morning,” Bernard said, voice fatigued.
Jo’s mind raced. Not only had they come directly after each of the other murders, they’d threatened Lacey when she hadn’t reported everything quickly enough. So why not now?
Lacey spoke again. “Maybe you made it too hot for him.”
“I hope that’s it.” Jo transitioned back to why she was calling. “Lopez is looking at everything we can get a handle on, and I’ve pulled in some of my CIs. But you have a different set of sources and contacts. Can you dig in and see what you can pull up?”
“Trust and believe if he’s hanging with someone on the down-low I’ll find them. You may not be able to put him under surveillance, but I sure as hell can.”
Jo tensed. “No, Lacey, that’s not what I’m asking. Don’t tail him. We’re dealing with someone dangerous and they already have you in their sights.”
“But you think digging into his life is gonna make melessof a target?”
“I do. He spotted our tail in no time flat, and our guys are very good at what they do. He’s watching, actively.”
Lacey didn’t respond.
Jo’s tires screeched as she cut the corner into the HQ parking lot. “I need to hear you say you’re not going to tail him.”
“I won’t,” Lacey said grudgingly.
“Thank you. Call me if you find anything and I’ll do the same.” Jo hung up, slammed to a stop in the parking lot, and jumped out of the car with Goran and Coyne following. She stopped by Arnett’s desk to grab him, then led everyone to Hayes’ office, feeling like a demented Pied Piper.
Everyone remained standing as she caught Hayes up.
“So because Ossokov didn’t react the way you expected him to, you now think his mother’s the killer?” Hayes asked.
“I haven’t ruled out Ossokov as the killer, and they may be working together. Because yes, I do think there are things that fit better this way. It never made sense to me why he’d bother to file the lawsuit if he was intent on killing everyone involved anyway, and—”
“For this very reason.” Hayes made a sweeping gesture. “Because any move we make against him, he can scream harassment from the rooftops.”
“And I agree, that may well be right. I’m just saying we need to cover our bases. We need surveillance on both Ossokov and his mother.”
Hayes shook her head like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You know we can’t do that. The instant we do, he’ll have us for harassment.”
Jo bit back her frustration—she’d hoped given the circumstances Hayes would drop the antagonism and listen, just for once. “If we go to the judge and make clear what’s at stake here, one of our detective’s lives, we should at least be able to get another agency to—”
“What exactly is that argument supposed to look like, Fournier? Am I supposed to tell him or her that I want to practically guarantee Ossokov will win hundreds of thousands of dollars because one of my detectives can’t take care of himself?” Arnett, Goran, and Coyne all bristled, but Hayes didn’t seem to notice. “Money that the state could be using to patrol dangerous neighborhoods or protect at-risk children? He or she will tell you the same thing I’m telling you—if you’re worried about Arnett’s safety, then put the surveillance onhim.”
Jo tightened her stance and lifted her chin. “Excellent, put surveillance on Arnett. But what if he isn’t the only target left on the killer’s list? The only way we can cover our bases is by watchingOssokov and his mother.”
Hayes’ face screwed up into an angry grimace and she started to say something, then caught herself. Her face relaxed into a firm smile. “Detective Fournier. Neither you nor I have time to stand here arguing in circles over circumstances we can’t change. The best solution is for you to go out there and find something ironclad that’ll let you arrest them without any possible stain. So get out there and do it.”
Jo clenched her fists, and her jaw. “Yes, ma’am.” She turned to go.
“One last thing,” Hayes said.
Jo turned back.
“If I find out that for some reason you decide to ignore my direct, clear instruction on this and put any form of surveillance on Ossokov or his mother, I won’t just bust you down to traffic cop. I’ll remove you completely.” She glanced around pointedly at the other detectives. “And I’ll hold you personally responsible if anybody else does, too.”
CHAPTERFORTY-EIGHT
The feeling of freedom after killing Murphy was the shortest yet—which worried me. But I was closing in on the end, and that’s what I had to focus on now. Once it was all behind me, I’d be able to sleep at night again. And knowing that—well, as I drove out to my destination, I found myself singing along with the radio again.
I parked a block away from my target, in front of a group of houses I knew didn’t have security cameras. Not hard in that particular neighborhood; it wasn’t a ghetto but it wasn’t fancy either. The house I was headed for did, but only one, angled to capture the stretch from the door out to the driveway—leaving the back and the sides of the house completely blind. I’d placed my own tiny camera in a tree in the neighbor’s yard so I could be certain the house was currently empty.
After parking in a safe spot, I cinched my hoodie around my face, and, with my head down in apparent concentration, jogged away from my car. Two houses on the path had cameras I couldn’t avoid, but nobody would know when to look for me on the footage, and even if they did, my hood would make it impossible to recognize me. But safe is better than sorry, so I was careful not to break stride when I jogged past those two cameras, and kept my head down.
